It's over

As you may have already guessed, I didn't finish. I tried, got distracted, tried some more, but no sweater for me. I'm still going to press on, just so you know. This isn't the last you'll see of Tubey. I'm taking a road trip on Friday to Michigan and I will be working on it non-stop up until then and in the car. Plus, once I finish this thing I'm never taking it off. I will wear it forever and ever and ever and ever. Me and my Tubey. In a last ditch effort to save face for the olympics I bought some Turbos yesterday. I thought the magic speed those needles bring would continue to knit my Tubey as I slept, but when I woke up it was the same size as when I went to bed. (I must write a letter to the company.....) Even though this sweater didn't exactly go according to plan I have 3 other sweaters lined up that I want to make because now I know I can do it. (well, I at least know I can start it and get halfway there) If any of you have seen the latest Cast On magazine, check out the cardigan that's cream, brown, and sage in color-YUM! There's also a poinsetta-themed sweater that I think would be just adorable for Christmas that I found in Knitting magazine. And last but not least, just to jump on the bandwagon, I've got plans to make the Hourglass sweater that is all over everyone's blogs. I actually bought the yarn for that one-Knitpicks Andean Silk Twist in Pumpkin. Great fall colors. Speaking of yarn purchases----you didn't actually think I went into TWO yarn stores yesterday and came out empty handed, did you? Yesterday Beth and I went to Richmond for shopping (yes I knit the whole way there and back) and to check out a couple of yarn stores. First stop was Got Yarn? in Midlothian. Small store, but great selection. I picked up a sock book penned by Edie Eckman, a Virginian designer that I met at the Knit-Out the past October. Beth got some super-soft, super-chunky stuff in a great color blue to make cabled scarf #2. (In case you were wondering, she did finish her Olympic goal-I'll post a picture soon.) Unravled, Inc. was the second store in Richmond we visited. Smaller store, smaller selection, but yummy yummy yarn. They also had a great selection of back issues of magazines. Beth and I each picked up a skein of this stuff. That's yarn that is hand-spun and hand-dyed by Blue Heron Yarns out of Easton, Maryland. I love a good story. This company started as just one woman spinning and dyeing her own yarn and selling it locally. Her one-woman operation slowly snowballed and now it's a small company that's doing well. The pictures really don't do this yarn justice. My colorway is called cactus and is mostly greens with hints of blue and purple and tiny fleck of gold all throughout. Beth got a skein that is all blues-ranging from dark navy to light blue with hints of purple and more obvious flecks of gold. Both are gorgeous. It's heavier than sportweight, but not quite worsted weight, and oh-so-soft. Sorry the close-up is so blurry, but it's truer to the colors of the yarn. I don't know what to do with it. I bought a pattern (picture below) for a cute lacey poncho. I was also thinking of a shawl pattern, like maybe the flower basket shawl that Carrieoke did, or maybe a Clapotis from Knitty.com. Anyone have any suggestions? I want whatever I do to really showcase the yarn. I have 550 yards, no more, no less. The ball band (well, it's not really a ball band, but you know what I mean) doesn't have a guage on it, but it does recommend size US 7 needles. Unravled is having a trunk show of this yarn the weekend of April 1st if anyone is interested. I might try to go. Oh! Almost forgot! One more thing. To anyone who was competing on Team First Sweater: congrats if you finished! Great job! To those of you who did not, I have a prize for you. "What's this?" you're thinking, "I didn't finish-surely there is no prize for me!". I haven't met too many knitters who were crazy about fun fur and all eyelashy sort of yarns. Last year I made a ton of them, most of which ended up in Italy-that's another story-but I'm left with a ton of eyelash yarn that I don't plan on using anytime soon. Simply competing in the Knitting Olympics is pretty cool, choosing an object like a sweater to complete is pretty outstanding, even if you didn't finish, and I think we all deserve a prize. However, we didn't finish, so we don't deserve the really cool stuff like the handspun, hand-dyed laceweight yummylicious yarn. C'mon, save that stuff for the gold medalists. But we all accomplished something here, so to those of you who didn't finish your sweaters shoot me an email (knittykarenAThotmailDOTcom) with your snail mail address and I will award you with your Olympic bronze medal=eyelash yarn.
Whew! I can't believe the Olympics are finally over! I can't tell you how relieved my husband is that now I won't have an excuse to not pitch in with the chores. He's been doing a great job without me, but the pile of dishes in the sink is rallying with the pile of dirty clothes and I think I heard something about mutiny, so if you'll excuse me I must put an end to that.